HKUST Annual Report 2021-2022

35 HKUST Annual Report 2021-2022 With the State Council’s plan to deepen the opening up of the Nansha district to promote comprehensive cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, and the new campus’s proximity to the University’s established Mainland platforms and industry partnerships in the area, HKUST(GZ) is also well positioned to drive knowledge transfer and commercialization of innovation and technology in the Greater Bay Area and beyond. Frontier areas of innovation encompassed include computational media and arts, electronic engineering, ocean science, and smart cities. To prepare for the opening in September, the main structures of all HKUST(GZ)’s campus buildings in Phase I were topped out after more than 300 days and nights of construction work. The new Guangzhou campus will offer 15 postgraduate degrees in 2022, while the admission of undergraduate students will begin in 2023. Alliances Deepen Academic Ties Further afield, the University strengthened its academic and research footprint in the Mainland, with collaborations instituted between HKUST and leading academic institutions in diverse parts of the country over the year. These included Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed with the University of Science and Technology of China and Harbin Institute of Technology, boosting ventures in education, research and innovation. HKUST also became a member of two Mainland-located university networks. The University teamed up with 32 other tertiary institutions – 21 from Jiangsu Province, eight from Hong Kong and three from Macao – to form the Jiangsu-Hong Kong-Macao University Alliance to build up talent development and research in innovation and technology. Boosting networking further, HKUST joined the Shanghai-based Global Artificial Intelligence Academic Alliance (GAIAA). Founded in 2018, GAIAA was jointly established by top universities, including Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Nanyang Technological University, connecting presidents and AI experts from world- renowned universities. Partnerships Foster Innovation Along with academic ties, the University widened its reach and cooperation with Mainland government bodies and businesses to take forward innovation and entrepreneurship.